Sociological Research Onlinehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk
Sociological Research Online:
High quality applied sociology, focusing on theoretical, empirical and methodological discussions which engage with current political, cultural and intellectual topics and debatesen-GBCopyright Sociological Research OnlineWed, 30 Nov 2016 11:04:35 +0000socres@surrey.ac.uk (Steven Roberts)http://www.epress.ac.uk/SRO/socresonline-75x30-logo.pnghttp://www.socresonline.org.uk
Sociological Research OnlineReview of: Life Phases, Mobility and Consumption: An Ethnography of Shopping RoutesDowling-C1@email.ulster.ac.uk (Conor Dowling)Reviewhttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/reviews/1.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/reviews/1.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:59:00 +0000Review of: Life Phases, Mobility and Consumption: An Ethnography of Shopping Routes by Hansson, Niklas, Dr, Vayre, Jean-Sébastien, Mr, Brembeck, Helene, Professor and Lalanne, Michèle, Professor, reviewed by Conor DowlingJustifications Analysis: Understanding Moral Evaluations in Public Debateseeva.luhtakallio@uta.fi (Tuomas Ylä-Anttila and Eeva Luhtakallio)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/4.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/4.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:58:00 +0000Tuomas Ylä-Anttila and Eeva Luhtakallio: This article introduces Justifications Analysis, a methodological approach for studying moral evaluations made in public debates. Established approaches to content analysis, most often building on the concept of framing, tend to overlook the moral dimension of public deliberation. We draw on Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot's justification theory to present a typology of moral justifications, that is, ways of justifying arguments referring to varying understandings of the common good. We illustrate the use of the method through two case studies, one on the media debate on globalization and another on local political conflicts. We argue that this approach is particularly useful for understanding the differing degrees of institutionalization of moral categories and power relations within and across cultural contexts.Review of: Ethnography for the Internetlnh1g09@soton.ac.uk (Laura Hyrjak)Reviewhttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/reviews/2.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/reviews/2.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:57:00 +0000Review of: Ethnography for the Internet by Hine, Christine, reviewed by Laura HyrjakReframing Research Ethics: Towards a Professional Ethics for the Social Sciencesn.emmerich@qub.ac.uk (Nathan Emmerich)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/7.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/7.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:56:00 +0000Nathan Emmerich: This article is premised on the idea that were we able to articulate a positive vision of the social scientist’s professional ethics, this would enable us to reframe social science research ethics as something internal to the profession. As such, rather than suffering under what has been called the imperialism of a research ethics constructed for the purposes of governing biomedical research, social scientists might argue for ethical self-regulation with greater force. I seek to provide the requisite basis for such an ‘ethics’ by, first, suggesting that the conditions which gave rise to biomedical research ethics are not replicated within the social sciences. Second, I argue that social science research can be considered as the moral equivalent of the ‘true professions.’ Not only does it have an ultimate end, but it is one that is – or, at least, should be - shared by the state and society as a whole. I then present a reading of confidentiality as a methodological - and not simply ethical – aspect of research, one that offers further support for the view that social scientists should attend to their professional ethics and the internal standards of their disciplines, rather than the contemporary discourse of research ethics that is rooted in the bioethical literature. Finally, and by way of a conclusion, I consider the consequences of the idea that social scientists should adopt a professional ethics and propose that the Clinical Ethics Committee might provide an alternative model for the governance of social science research.Review of: Externalizing Migration Management: Europe, North America and the Spread of 'Remote Control' Practices (Routledge Research in Place, Space and Politics)Reviewhttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/reviews/3.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/reviews/3.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:55:00 +0000Review of: Externalizing Migration Management: Europe, North America and the Spread of 'Remote Control' Practices (Routledge Research in Place, Space and Politics) by Zaiotti, Ruben (ed.), reviewed by Daniel Martin‘I Can’t Settle if It’s Not Tidy; I Blame That on My Mum’: Exploring Women’s Relational Household Work Narrativesj.e.kettle@sheffield.ac.uk (Jennifer Kettle)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/6.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/6.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:54:00 +0000Jennifer Kettle: Household work literature has highlighted the importance of mothers to their daughters’ accounts of their household work practice, arguing that women can both aim to emulate and avoid particular practices in their own household work. This paper further explores this topic, drawing on a small-scale qualitative study to explore the self-narratives that two generations of mothers construct around the theme of household work. It looks particularly at how accounts of household work practices are incorporated into broader stories of growing up and taking responsibility, and the relevance of discourses of individualisation, and the notion of reflexive biographies to these explanations. This article also draws on theories of connectedness to show how self-narratives around the theme of household work reflect different forms of relationality, and to argue that a concept of relational selves is useful for making sense of these narratives.New Ways of Doing the “Good” and Gender Equal Family: Parents Employing Nannies and Au Pairs in Swedensara.elden@soc.lu.se (Sara Eldén and Terese Anving)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/2.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/2.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:53:00 +0000Sara Eldén and Terese Anving: The last decade, Nordic families have started to employ nannies and au pairs to an extent previously never experienced. Political initiatives such as tax deductions for household services, together with global trends of “care chains”, have created a private market for care services, which have made it possible for families to hire cheap female, and often migrant, care labour. In the case of Sweden, this is an indication of a re-familializing trend in politics of care and family; a move away from a social democratic welfare regime, towards the privatized and marketized care/family solutions of other Western countries. This qualitative study of Swedish families who hire nannies/au pairs shows how the dual earner/dual carer family is being replaced by a dual earner/privately outsourced care family, a shift that requires particular forms of accounting for their practices on the part of the parents, related to the discourse of gender equality as well as narratives of what is ‘best for children’. This, we argue, indicates that gender equality and “good care” for children is increasingly becoming a class privilege.Ethnicity and (Dis)advantage: Exchanging Cultural Capital in UK International Education and Graduate Employmentsinilin@gmail.com (I Lin Sin)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/3.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/3.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:52:00 +0000I Lin Sin: This article investigates the under-researched role of ethnicity in the conversion of cultural capital linked to UK international education into life chance privileges and disadvantages. It reports findings from qualitative interviews with Malaysian international students and graduates who pursued their UK education in the UK and/or in Malaysia. It moves beyond a heavy focus on class in existing literature to delayer further complexities in distinction influenced by ethnicity and made more visible by new modes of international education alongside the traditional mode. I highlight how ethnicity influenced the participants’ higher education choices, and their accumulation and activation of knowledge, skills, dispositions and networks. I show how ethnicity shaped their sense of appropriate graduate work and their perceived value of a UK education in relation to economic opportunities and constraints. The participants tended to study, interact and work most with members of their ethnic group, reflecting Malaysia’s distinctive majority-minority divide across higher education and employment. While linked to ethnicity, relevant participants regarded nationality as a more significant factor for exclusion in the UK labour market. The findings have implications for the development of Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, and the advancement of equity and inclusiveness within and beyond international education. I conclude that more recognition is needed of the heterogeneity of the foreign student and graduate middle-class to explore the exchangeability of cultural capital across stratified geographical and socio-relational contexts.Negotiating Constructions of Insider and Outsider Status in Research with Veiled Muslim Women Victims of Islamophobic Hate Crimeirene.zempi@ntu.ac.uk (Irene Zempi)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/8.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/8.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:51:00 +0000Irene Zempi: This article presents a reflexive discussion of insider and outsider positions in a qualitative study researching Islamophobic hate crime with Muslim women who wear the niqab (face veil) in public in the United Kingdom (UK). As a non-Muslim woman, some aspects of my identity can be linked to insider positions while other aspects of my identity can be linked to outsider positions, with implications for the documentation of participants’ lived experiences. Within the framework of ‘critical reflexivity’, this article considers the impact of my insider/outsider status at each stage of the research process, from deciding on the research topic, the research design, accessing participants through to data collection and analysis. This article re-articulates the importance of researcher reflexivity, particularly when both researchers and participants exhibit multiculturality (for example, in the context of having multicultural backgrounds), which has become more common in the globalised world. It will be concluded that engaging in critical reflexivity is important for producing reliable and ethical research as it enables researchers to be aware of their position in the ‘space between’ and be transparent how their positionality impacts on the entire research process.Getting the Green Light: Experiences of Icelandic Mothers Struggling with Breastfeedingsks23@hi.is (Sunna Símonardóttir)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/1.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/1.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:50:00 +0000Sunna Símonardóttir: The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, with continued breastfeeding up to two years of age or beyond. This policy has been adopted by the Nordic countries, including Iceland, where there has been an upward trend towards higher breastfeeding rates and duration. The high breastfeeding rates in Iceland indicate that the idea that all women should breastfeed is culturally very strong. Exclusive breastfeeding is constructed as a pillar of successful bonding and absolutely paramount when it comes to promoting the close primary relationship between mother and child. Previous research on breastfeeding from a socio-cultural point of view remains very much rooted in an Anglo-American context and has mostly been conducted in countries where breastfeeding rates remain relatively low and the cultural context of breastfeeding similar. This paper addresses that particular knowledge gap by making visible the identity work that Icelandic mothers perform in order to be able to construct themselves as “good” responsible mothers and how dominant biomedical discourses on infant feeding and ʹgood motheringʹ discursively position women as powerless and unable to make decisions on breastfeeding cessation. The reaction that they experience from their immediate surroundings indicates that their ʹfailuresʹ in breastfeeding can rarely be constructed as anything other than a personal shortcoming. Whilst the surveillance that they come to expect from other mothers and the general public results in them having to account for their ʹlackʹ of breastfeeding in order to avert the hostile gaze of others.Literary Ethnography of Evidence-Based Healthcare: Accessing the Emotions of Rational-Technical Discoursebglr@st-andrews.ac.uk (Benet Reid)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/16.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/16.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:49:00 +0000Benet Reid: In this article I revisit the idea of literary ethnography (proposed by Van de Poel-Knottnerus and Knottnerus, 1994) as a method for investigating social phenomena constituted principally through literature. I report the use of this method to investigate the topic of evidence-based healthcare, EBHC. EBHC is a field of discourse much built upon a dichotomy between rationality and emotionality. In this context literary ethnography, a particular type of discourse analysis, is valuable for allowing researchers to bring the emotional currents of technical-rational discourse into conscious awareness. In such discourses, emotions are not written out by name. The researcher must discern emotional phenomena by experiencing the discourse, and (try to) bring them into intelligible expression. As I clarify this process I develop Van de Poel-Knottnerus and Knottnerus’ method theoretically, look to destabilise the rationality-emotionality dichotomy foundational to discourse around EBHC, and so transgress its conventional lines of thought.Concept-Formation, Complexity and Social Domains: Investigating Emotion(S) in a Prison Settingvknight@dmu.ac.uk (Victoria Knight and Derek Layder)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/5.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/5.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:48:00 +0000Victoria Knight and Derek Layder: This article reports on an ethnographic study focusing on the impact of in-cell television on prison life in a male adult prison in the UK. Layder's social domains model (1997; 2006) and his adaptive analysis (1998; 2014), were used to give shape, meaning and organization to data from interviews with prisoners and staff and also television-use diaries. The research highlighted how television is adopted for its care-giving qualities (Knight 2015; 2016). This article focuses primarily on what prisoners do and what prison does, with emotions. The paper focuses on examining and developing theoretical and methodological conceptual links between self, emotions and control in the prison setting.Quality of Work in Prostitution and Sex Work. Introduction to the Special Sectionstef.adriaenssens@kuleuven.be (Stef Adriaenssens, Giulia Garofalo Geymonat and Laura Oso)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/9.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/9.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:47:00 +0000Stef Adriaenssens, Giulia Garofalo Geymonat and Laura Oso: [No abstract]On Our Own Terms: The Working Conditions of Internet-Based Sex Workers in the UKdrteelasanders@gmail.com (Teela Sanders, Laura Connelly and Laura Jarvis King)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/15.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/15.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:46:00 +0000Teela Sanders, Laura Connelly and Laura Jarvis King: The sex industry is increasingly operated through online technologies, whether this is selling services online through webcam or advertising, marketing or organising sex work through the Internet and digital technologies. Using data from a survey of 240 internet-based sex workers (members of the National Ugly Mug reporting scheme in the UK), we discuss the working conditions of this type of work. We look at the basic working patterns, trajectories and everyday experiences of doing sex work via an online medium and the impact this has on the lives of sex workers. For instance, we look at levels of control individuals have over their working conditions, prices, clientele and services sold, and discuss how this is mediated online and placed in relation to job satisfaction. The second key finding is the experience of different forms of crimes individuals are exposed to such as harassment and blackmail via the new technologies. We explore the relationship internet-based sex workers have with the police and discuss how current laws in the UK have detrimental effects in terms of safety and access to justice. These findings are placed in the context of the changing landscape of sex markets as the digital turn determines the nature of the majority of commercial sex encounters. These findings contribute significantly to the populist coercion/choice political debates by demonstrating levels and types of agency and autonomy experienced by some sex workers despite working in a criminalized, precarious and sometimes dangerous context.Work Conditions and Job Mobility in the Australian Indoor Sex Industryfairleigh.gilmour@otago.ac.nz (Fairleigh Evelyn Gilmour)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/14.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/14.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:45:00 +0000Fairleigh Evelyn Gilmour: This article explores sex workers’ experiences of work conditions and job mobility in the indoor sectors of the Australian sex industry: brothel work, escort work and small cooperative work. Drawing from 14 in-depth life-narrative interviews with sex workers and former sex workers, it explores the key challenges faced by participants in navigating regulation and carving out a safe and lucrative working space. It offers a critical account of job flexibility and mobility in the sex industry and argues that the availability of increased options in a decriminalized setting means a greater range of potential spaces for workers to negotiate a suitable work environment.Too Much Suffering’: Understanding the Interplay Between Migration, Bounded Exploitation and Trafficking Through Nigerian Sex Workers’ Experiencesn.mai@kingston.ac.uk (Nicola Mai)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/13.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/13.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:44:00 +0000Nicola Mai: Migrant sex workers’ experiences of exploitation depend on a dynamic re-evaluation of the working conditions and relationships that frame their entry into the global sex industry according to the subsequent unfolding of their working and wider lives. Contrary to the essentialist obliteration of consent introduced by abolitionist scholarship and policymaking, migrants can decide to endure bounded exploitative deals with people enabling their travel and work abroad in order to meet the economic and administrative (becoming documented) objectives they set for themselves. When this deal is broken as a result of the betrayal of original negotiations, migrants can decide to reframe their migration and work experience as trafficking and denounce their original enablers as traffickers, which gives them a chance to obtain the right to reside and work in the country of destination through asylum.Precarious or Protected? Evaluating Work Quality in the Legal Sex Industryalice.orchiston@sydney.edu.au (Alice Orchiston)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/12.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/12.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:43:00 +0000Alice Orchiston: Decriminalising (or legalising) sex work is argued to improve sex workers’ safety and provide access to labour rights. However, there is a paucity of empirical research comparing how different regulatory approaches affect working conditions in the sex industry, especially in relation to venues that are managed by third parties. This article uses a mixed methods study of the Australian legal brothel sector to critically explore the relationship between external regulation and working conditions. Two dominant models of sex industry regulation are compared: decriminalisation and licensing. First, the article documents workplace practices in the Australian legal brothel sector, examining sex workers’ agency, autonomy and control over the labour process. Second, it analyses the capacity of each regulatory model to protect sex workers from unsafe and unfair working conditions. On the basis of these findings, the article concludes that brothel-based sex work is precarious and substantively excluded from the protective mantle of labour law, notwithstanding its legality. It is argued that the key determinant of conditions in the legal brothel sector is the extent to which the state enforces formal labour protections, as distinct from the underlying regulatory model adopted.Transnational Social Mobility Strategies and Quality of Work Among Latin-American Women Sex Workers in Spainlaura.oso@udc.es (Laura Oso)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/11.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/11.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:42:00 +0000Laura Oso: The aim of this article is to analyse the quality of work of two of the main types of female sex work in Spain (clubs and in-call flats). In order to do so I will focus on the following working dimensions: wages, power relations, skills, alienation, health, violence, work life and stigma. Firstly, the article seeks to highlight the structural factors that condition the quality of work of Latin American female sex workers in Spain. These factors are closely connected to policies regarding migration and sex work, which foment irregular work arrangements (undocumented migrants and informal workers). Secondly, I analyse entry formats (indebted or autonomous migration) and how they impact on working conditions. Thirdly, the article considers the migrant women’s work choices and the resulting living and working conditions they may encounter. I intend to show that Latin American women sex workers in Spain might opt for a certain type of work within the context of strategic decisions, as linked to their migratory and social mobility projects. These decisions have a family and a transnational scope (country of origin, country of destination). The analysis presented is based on qualitative fieldwork (semi-structured interviews) carried out in Galicia (north-west Spain).Ambivalent Professionalisation and Autonomy in Workers’ Collective Projects: The Cases of Sex Worker Peer Educators in Germany and Sexual Assistants in Switzerlandgiulia.garofalo@genus.lu.se (Giulia Garofalo Geymonat and P.G. Macioti)Articlehttp://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/10.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/10.htmlWed, 30 Nov 2016 12:41:00 +0000Giulia Garofalo Geymonat and P.G. Macioti: Drawing on participant methodologies this article examines two cases of workers’ self-organised projects oriented to improving the quality of sex work and to ‘professionalisation’. The first case is a group of sexual assistants for people with disabilities, who have organised meetings and training for sexual assistants in a medium-sized city in Switzerland. The second is a group of peer sex worker educators offering workshops to people who sell sex in various industry sectors in a large German city. We argue that these activist interventions may represent a resource for identifying crucial aspects of work-quality and professionalisation in sex work and for making sense of some apparent contradictions of sex workers’ organising. Indeed, through ongoing conversations and recommendations about working practices and ethics, our participants develop situated views of what is better sex work and they originally engage with key conceptual areas, such as consent, autonomy, standardisation, income and professional identity. They do so by comparing a variety of experiences in sex industries, as well as discussing similarities with other jobs such as body work, care work, and psychotherapy.